20 Best Royalty-Free Music Sites for Video Courses

In case you're considering an explainer video for your business, you might wonder about the music. Most production companies don't create their own; they license it from services that source it from musicians. There are options for every budget and style, with various sites offering unique features. 

So while you focus on educational and engaging content with a good balance of video and text, don't forget the audio. Adding background music can enhance your learners' experience, making your videos more engaging and memorable.

You have a few options for adding music to your videos:

1. Compose your own music.
2. Pay per-usage fees for rights-protected music.
3. Use royalty-free music.

Royalty-free music is the most budget-friendly option, unless you're a musician ready to create your own. Check out our guide to the best royalty-free music sites, with both paid and free options.

But first let’s delve into the introduction of what royalty-free music is, the main benefits and how you can choose the best match for you and your business.

What is Royalty-Free Music?

Royalty-free music is a type of music licensing that allows the purchaser to pay a one-time fee to use the music without needing to pay ongoing royalties or licensing fees.

This means you can use the music in your projects without incurring additional costs for repeated use. Royalty-free music is popular for videos, podcasts, commercials, and other media projects due to its cost-effectiveness and ease of use.

Benefits of Using Royalty-Free Music in Video Courses

Several factors contribute to the success of a video, from user-friendliness and high-quality production to a well-thought-out scenario and musical accompaniment. Here are the core benefits of choosing royalty-free music sites:

• Re-use - Royalty-free music is distributed under licenses, eliminating the need for lengthy negotiations with labels and producers. Simply purchase a suitable license from a wide range of options, often available as annual subscriptions.
• Time-saving - Royalty-free music platforms offer convenient browsing and advanced search engines. You can filter tracks by genre, mood, purpose, and instruments, making it easy to find the perfect track quickly.
• Cost-effectiveness - Buying royalty-free music is more affordable than commissioning custom compositions. These platforms purchase tracks in bulk and offer them at significantly reduced prices. For a small fee, you gain access to a vast library of music, maximizing your investment.

Read also: 5 Best AI Video Generator Tools for Content Creators

Royalty-Free vs. Copyright-Free Music: Understanding the Difference

When navigating the world of music licensing, it's crucial to understand the difference between royalty-free and copyright-free music. Royalty-free music offers a cost-effective solution, granting perpetual use through a one-time licensing fee. This eliminates the need for ongoing royalty payments whenever you use the music in your projects.

In contrast, copyright-free music possesses no copyright restrictions, allowing for unrestricted use without any licensing fees. However, the availability of high-quality copyright-free music can be limited, and ownership rights might remain with the artist. To guarantee clear usage rights and avoid copyright concerns, royalty-free music libraries provide a reliable and secure option for content creators.

What are the Best Royalty-Free Music Sites for Video Courses?

As we begin this journey, we'll explore the best paid and free royalty-free music libraries, each a treasure trove of possibilities. These platforms cater to your creative needs while ensuring accessibility, striking the perfect balance for content creators.

Top Royalty-Free Music Sites - Paid Options

PremiumBeat

PremiumBeat , a Shutterstock company, is a well-known source for royalty-free music, attracting talented musicians due to its extensive reach. A quick listen to their samples will reveal clips you’ve likely heard in various ads. PremiumBeat prides itself on offering more than just background music; it crafts a bespoke atmosphere that enhances your visual narrative.

What sets PremiumBeat apart is its collaboration with renowned musicians, infusing your projects with expertise and sophistication. Their polished search engine allows precise navigation through their vast library, letting you search by genre, mood, BPM, duration, artist, and instruments. Advanced features include searching for immersive music, tracks with stems, loops, and even free tracks. Whether you're a YouTube creator or working on a major project, PremiumBeat has a suitable licensing option.

Pricing:

• Subscription: $64.95/month for 5 tracks
• Yearly subscription: $585/year for 60 tracks
• Pay-per-download: $49 for Standard License, $199 for Premium License

Epidemic Sound

In a world of corporate jingles, Epidemic Sound stands out as a premium service offering the best-sounding tracks. Its layout resembles a record store, making it a journey into new music. Constantly curating the latest tracks, it ensures your projects sound fresh and stylish.

Epidemic Sound is among the best royalty-free music sites for a reason. It offers curated playlists tailored to mood, genre, or theme, and a user-friendly search function with filters for mood, genre, vocals, duration, BPM, and more. Sorting options let you discover popular tunes and find the best matches by tempo.

Pricing:

• Personal Use: $7/month ($6/month with a yearly subscription)
• Commercial Use: $25/month ($12/month with a yearly subscription)
• Enterprise plans sold separately

Artlist

Artlist is rapidly gaining popularity, and for good reason. Their new personal plan starts at just $9.99/month with annual billing or $14.99/month billed monthly, offering access to their full music and SFX catalog with a license covering all social channels, perfect for content creators.

Artlist isn't just a platform; it curates an auditory adventure, providing a vast collection of creative assets, including royalty-free music and sound effects. You can search by keywords, genres, instruments, and moods, with features tailored to your video style, whether for business, vlogs, trailers, or weddings. The sorting function lets you find the best matches or most popular tracks, even sorting by gender-based vocals. 

Pricing:

• Personal Use: $9.99/month billed annually
• Commercial Use: $16.99/month billed annually

Music Vine

When it comes to royalty-free music, you've likely noticed a wide range of quality. Some tracks sound like they were made quickly in a bedroom, and sometimes that's all you need for an explainer video. Music Vine is the opposite. It offers a smaller selection of a few thousand tracks, but each one is a high-quality orchestration. Pricing depends on your project's use (e.g., student film vs. international commercial), and while it may be higher than average, the quality is noticeable. For top-notch pre-produced music, Music Vine is an excellent choice.

Pricing:

• Pro Lite: $19.99/month billed annually 
• Pro Standard: $35.99/month billed annually 

‍Soundstripe

While some sites also offer sound effects, Soundstripe prominently features them as an add-on to their subscription service. With monthly or yearly pricing, Soundstripe offers a solid library of quality music and FX. This platform provides an extensive toolkit to elevate your projects.

Soundstripe's search engine allows you to find the perfect soundtrack by mood, genre, and artist, but it also offers advanced searches by characteristics, energy, instruments, keys, playlists, vocals, duration, and BPM. You can even search for stems and popular hits, with curated playlists available. Soundstripe fosters a community-driven ethos, ensuring the platform meets the evolving needs of content creators.

Pricing:

• Personal Use: $9.99/month billed monthly or annually
• Commercial Use: $19.99/month billed monthly or annually
• Enterprise plans available

Filmstro

As the name suggests, FilmStro focuses on soundtrack-style musical cues, providing a great selection of instrumental tracks. This site stands out with its emphasis on creating cinematic experiences through music. FilmStro offers multiple monthly pricing plans, with discounts for long-term subscriptions, making it a flexible choice for various budgets and needs.

One unique feature of FilmStro is its support for independent filmmakers. They allow the use of their music free of charge for anyone creating creative short films. This generous offer enables budding filmmakers to enhance their projects with high-quality soundtracks without breaking the bank.

Pricing:

• Youtuber: $8.25/month billed annually 
• Pro: 20.75$/month billed annually
• Pro Plus: $41.50/month billed annually

Pond5

Step into Pond5, your go-to hub for royalty-free music and an expansive collection of sound effects. This creative playground caters to diverse projects, from cinematic ventures to podcasts. Explore music filtered by duration, tempo, mood, genre, and artist choices. Pond5 also offers filters for tracks cleared for sampling, collaborations with PremiumBeat, and free and public domain tracks.

Pond5 is a vibrant marketplace where artists showcase and monetize their creations, offering a diverse array of musical styles and genres. Besides music, Pond5 provides creative assets like stock photos, After Effects files, vector graphics, 3D models, and Photoshop files.

Dive into creativity with Pond5, where options harmonize seamlessly with imagination.

Pricing:

• Subscription: $25/month for music tracks
• Pay-per-download: Tracks starting at $5
• Custom plans available

Bensound

Bensound is an excellent choice for royalty-free music, catering to both personal and business needs. While most sites either focus on business licenses or personal use, Bensound simplifies the process for both with just a click. If you find a track you like, simply click "download," and you can choose between a free version for personal use or a reasonably-priced paid version for corporate use.

This user-friendly approach makes it incredibly easy to access high-quality music regardless of your project type. Few sites offer such straightforward options, making Bensound a standout in the world of royalty-free music. Whether you're creating content for fun or for a professional setting, Bensound ensures you have the right track at your fingertips.

Pricing:

• Standard: €9.99/month billed annually
• Extended: €19.99/month billed annually
• Premium: €39.99/month billed annually

Storyblocks

Storyblocks offers a comprehensive content solution for creators and businesses, providing an unlimited library of high-quality royalty-free video, audio, and images through cost-effective subscription plans. With unlimited downloads and worry-free licensing, you can confidently build and refine your projects.

For as low as $30 a month, Storyblocks gives members unlimited access to millions of videos, audio files, images, After Effects templates, animated backgrounds, and Premiere Pro templates. All downloaded content is royalty-free and can be used in your projects forever. With over 1.5 million digital assets available, Storyblocks is ideal for those seeking an extensive library of high-quality stock media at an affordable price.

Pricing:

Starter: $15/month billed annually

Unlimited All Access: $30/month billed annually

Pro: $35/month billed annually

Audio Jungle

AudioJungle, a gem of the Envato Market, is renowned for its extensive collection of high-quality music tracks. As a marketplace for independent musicians, it offers a diverse range of music options.

Unlike Envato Elements' subscription model, AudioJungle uses a pay-per-download approach, letting you purchase individual tracks as needed without a subscription commitment.

The platform provides robust search and filtering features, allowing you to find tracks based on keywords, genres, moods, duration, tempo, and instruments. User reviews and testimonials further validate the quality and reliability of the tracks available.

Pricing:

• AudioJungle is a treasure trove of music, offering tracks starting as low as $1.

AKM Music

Whatever the need, AKM Music’s extensive UK library of high-quality royalty-free background music eliminates copyright worries and expensive fees. This is the UK's number one producer, which offers a no subscription system - simply browse and find the perfect track.

Their royalty-free music, also known as copyright-free or non-copyrighted music, can be used without incurring extra costs. This music is suitable for monetized or non-monetized videos, including broadcasts, video productions, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, podcasts, streaming, and all social media platforms. The license allows clients to upload productions online and covers multiple and unlimited worldwide usage. With a one-time payment, the music can be used forever. 

Pricing:

• Royalty Free Music For Media: £16.95 for track downloads | £36 for album downloads | £38 for CDs
• Royalty Free Music to Play in your business: £36 for album downloads | £36 for CDs

Jamendo

Jamendo is a music streaming platform where users can play and download tracks for free. Independent artists can submit their tracks for others to access, making it a valuable resource for both musicians and their fans.

Currently, Jamendo features a vast collection of songs from various genres, making it an excellent site for any music lover.

Upon visiting the website, you'll find two main options: Jamendo Music and Jamendo Licensing. Jamendo Music is designed for individuals who want to download and listen to free music.

In contrast, Jamendo Licensing caters to businesses and content creators who need royalty-free music for commercial use, offering licenses to use the tracks on Jamendo.

Pricing:

• Standard license: $19
• Large license: $49 
• Enterprise license: custom pricing
• Track packs: custom pricing

Amazon

Amazon, a household name, offers a robust platform for royalty-free music, though its selection may not be the most extensive, with thousands of tracks available. Prices are budget-friendly, ranging from 79p to 99p per track. However, the navigation leaves much to be desired, as songs are listed as individual tracks or albums without clear categorization by theme or genre. To find what you need, you might have to experiment with search terms or scroll through the listings. Despite this, with some time and effort, Amazon can still be a worthwhile resource for budget-conscious creators.

Marmoset

Marmoset is a full-service music agency that offers an extensive catalog featuring everything from vintage tracks to music from emerging artists, bands, and record labels. Whether you're looking to license a classic Jackson Five song or something more contemporary, Marmoset has you covered. If you can't find the perfect music for your project, their in-house team of composers and producers can create a custom track tailored to your specific needs.

Marmoset stands out not only for its diverse music library but also for its commitment to social responsibility. As one of the first certified B Corporation music agencies, Marmoset donates 10% of their profits to partner nonprofits and organizations every month. This dedication to giving back makes Marmoset a unique and conscientious choice for anyone looking to enhance their projects with high-quality music.

Pricing:

• Individual Plan: $12/month billed annually
• Enterprise Plan: Custom price | Request a quote

Envato Elements

Envato Elements offers more than graphics and templates; it provides a rich collection of royalty-free music, enhancing your creative projects with diverse soundscapes.

From classic symphonies to futuristic beats, hip-hop rhythms to electronic vibes, Envato Elements has it all. With a robust search and filtering system, users can find specific tracks using keywords, genres, moods, duration, tempo, and instruments. Sorting options by relevance, popularity, and date added make finding the perfect track easy.

Pricing:

• Individual Plan: $16.5/month billed annually
• Team Plan: $29/month for a 2 members billed annually (up to 5 members plan is available)
• Enterprise Plans: available separately
• 30% off for Students

FoxiMusic

Foximusic is a music licensing and production agency offering high-quality, royalty-free tracks for a variety of projects. Their in-house team ensures 100% clear rights to all music, eliminating third-party complications. Users can download tracks with a one-time payment, securing a lifetime license for commercial or personal use on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Foximusic continuously updates its catalog, providing an easy-to-navigate library for content creators and businesses.

Pricing:

• Personal/Basic License: $59/per 10 tracks
• Commercial/Standard License: $99/per 10 tracks
• Custom/Tailor Made License: Custom rate

Free Options

YouTube Audio Library

Explore the YouTube Audio Library, a dedicated space for YouTube creators, offering high-quality, royalty-free music and sound effects. With a vast collection spanning genres from electronic beats to acoustic melodies, users can easily find the perfect soundtrack to enhance their videos.

Filter music by genre, mood, artist, and duration, and take advantage of Creative Commons licenses, including Attribution requirements. This ensures seamless integration into your projects without copyright concerns. The library is constantly updated, making it a reliable resource for all your content needs. Just check each track’s description for specific usage guidelines!

TeknoAxe

TeknoAXE’s website may be unassuming, but its music library is a hidden gem. Despite its metal-head name and minimalist design, TeknoAXE offers a solid selection of tracks. All music is covered by a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0), allowing you to share and adapt the songs for commercial use, as long as you provide proper credit. Whether you’re looking for dance beats like breakbeat and dubstep, or prefer the intensity of rock and metal, TeknoAXE has you covered. It also excels in niche genres, offering unique sounds that are perfect for adding a distinctive edge to any project.

Free Stock Music

Free-Stock-Music.com is a platform offering royalty-free music for content creators, including social media videos, vlogs, movies, and animations. Our small team, passionate about music, aims to promote a wide range of genres and artists.

Most tracks on Free-Stock-Music.com are released under a Creative Commons license (CC-BY), allowing free use with proper attribution to the artist/composer. For YouTube videos, ensure to include the credit in your video description. Detailed attribution guidelines are provided on each track's page.

Additionally, many tracks offer an option to purchase a license and HQ audio files, directly supporting the artists and encouraging them to create more inspiring music for future projects.

ccMixter

ccMixter is a community-driven music platform that supports remix culture, offering samples, remixes, and a cappella tracks licensed under Creative Commons. Users can listen, sample, mash-up, or download tracks for use in their own projects. Unlike many sampling sites that limit rights to new songs, ccMixter’s material is free for use across various platforms and projects. With over 10,000 samples from diverse artists, ccMixter encourages creativity and collaboration in the music-making process.

Purple Planet

Purple Planet boasts a rich library of royalty-free music tailored for video creators, filmmakers, and content producers. Their extensive collection spans a variety of genres and moods, ensuring there's a perfect track for every project, whether commercial or personal. The platform prides itself on offering high-quality, easy-to-use tracks with clear, straightforward licensing terms, making it simple for users to download and integrate music into their work. With a focus on versatility and accessibility, Purple Planet supports creators in enhancing their content with professional-grade soundtracks.

How to Choose the Right Music for Your Video Course

When choosing and editing music for your video, keep these main factors in mind:

1. Avoid using the same track across multiple videos to maintain each video’s unique vibe.
2. Match the song’s mood and energy with your video’s tone. Upbeat music suits business videos, but avoid dark or distracting tracks.
3. Pick a genre that fits your brand and audience, but doesn’t overshadow your message.
4. Lyrics can enhance storytelling but might conflict with voice-overs; consider instrumental music for voice recordings.
5. Edit the song to fit your video’s flow, skipping unneeded parts and fading music out smoothly.

Conclusion

In summary, websites offering royalty-free music are invaluable for anyone seeking music for their video content. While you may still spend some time searching for the perfect track, these platforms greatly simplify the process.